Traditionally, inorganic materials have dominated the electronic device industry. For example, silicon arsenide and gallium arsenide have been used as semiconductor materials, silicon dioxide has been used as an insulator material, and metals such as aluminum and copper have been used as electrode materials. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing research effort aimed at using organic materials rather than the traditional inorganic materials in electronic devices. Among other benefits, the use of organic materials may enable lower cost manufacturing of electronic devices, may enable large area applications, and may enable the use of flexible circuit supports for display backplane and integrated circuits.
Thin-film organic electronics promise lightweight, flexible, inexpensive devices produced using high rate, low cost, solution based methods like spin coating or reel-to-reel processing with compliant substrates (Rogers, J. A., et al., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 2001, 98:4835-4840; Daniel, J. H., et al., ECS Tranactions, 2006, 3:229-236). In a low cost manufacturing environment, process steps like thermal annealing of thin-films to improve charge carrier mobilities (Tunnell, A. J., et al., Org. Electron, 2008, 9:507-514) should occur in air. Thus, it is important that the chosen organic semiconductor possesses both excellent photooxidative resistance and thermal stability.
A variety of organic semiconductor materials have been considered, the most common being fused aromatic ring compounds as exemplified by small molecules such as pentacene-containing compounds, tetracene-containing compounds, anthracene-containing compounds, bis(acenyl)acetylene compounds, and acene-thiophene compounds. Several polymeric materials have also been considered such as regioregular polythiophenes, which are exemplified by poly(3-alkylthiophene), and polymers having fused thiophene units or bis-thiophene units.
Due to the high charge carrier mobilities associated with its thin films, pentacene is one of the most widely utilized organic semiconductor compounds. However, its application in thin-film electronic devices is hindered by its lack of thermal stability, its poor solubility and its propensity to photo-oxidize (Ono, K., et al., Tetrahedron, 2007, 61:9699-9704; Palayangoda, S. S., et al., J. Org. Chem., 2007, 72:6584-6587; Etienne, A. and C. Beauvios, Compt. Rend., 1954, 239:64-66; Benor, A., et al., Org. Electron, 2007, 8:749-758; Koch, N., et al., Org. Electron, 2006, 7:537-545). Pentacene oxidation leads to diminished electronic device performance. Pentacene-6,13-dione forms upon photo-oxidation and has been implicated as a deep charge carrier trap that reduces charge carrier mobility (Koch, N., et al., Org. Electron, 2006, 7:537-545). Other organic semiconductors like polythiophene also suffer from a lack of stability. As a result, thin film organic electronic devices like organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have limited lifetimes, generally no longer than a few years. Moreover, organic semiconductors are generally excluded from high temperature applications like, for example, high temperature sensors and controllers.
Therefore, what is needed in the art is a soluble pentacene derivative that can be cast into a thin-film organic semiconductor material with greater thermal stability and greater photooxidative resistance than either pentacene or any of its presently known derivative compounds.